Home page of the West Midlands
Regional Sustainability Forum
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Home page of the West Midlands |
The West Midlands Regional Sustainability Forum has been established, to provide a voice for the wide range of environmental groups as part of the regionalisation process within the West Midlands. The forum will have direct contact and input to the emerging regional bodies such as the West Midlands Regional Chamber, West Midlands Development Agency, the West Midlands Voluntary and Community Network. The forum will add value to its members work but not distract from their primary aims. The West Midlands region consists of the unitary authorities of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Solihull, Stoke on Trent, Telford & The Wrekin, Walsall, Wolverhampton and the two tier counties of Shropshire,Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The regional agenda is moving apace, and it is imperative that we organise to address that process.
At present (March 1999) the Forum membership includes West Midland representatives from Council for the Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth, The Wildlife Trusts, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000, Railway Development Society, Pedestrians Association, Ramblers Association, Cyclists Touring Club, Sustrans, Midland Amenity Societies Association, West Midlands New Economics Group and the West Midland Environment Network.
We are developing contacts all the time, and have been and are always seeking ways of developing our membership base.
As well as the well publicised devolution of Scotland and Wales, and the establishment of an elected assembly in Northern Ireland, there is also creeping regionalisation in England. There are nine recognised English regions. They are:
More information on the regional debate can be accessed from the government web site for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). http://www.open.gov.uk and then through the functional index go to E and to DETR.
According to the governments web site consultation document Building Partnerships for Posterity.
The West Midlands is the UK's manufacturing heartland and home to a large number of major automotive and engineering companies. However by far the largest part of the region's land space is rural with attractive countryside, market towns and picturesque villages - and a world class food and drink industry. The population is 5.3 million, 9.1% of the UK's total, and a crude measurement of performance gives it 8.4% of the total UK GDP. In European terms it is measured at 93 with average EU performance being set at 100.
There are plenty of campaigns on the environmental front to be fought within the West Midlands region. There is also a history of environmentalists working at the regional level. This has all helped to set up the Forum. The primary purpose of the Forum is to add value to the work of it's members at the regional level, and to be a voice for the environmental sector within the West Midlands. The forum was set up in July 1998, however members of the forum had previously contributed to the formation of Regional Planning Guidance (RPG11), and also to housing policies, transport strategies and an inward investment land beauty contest, once RPG 11 had been produced.
The regionalisation debate required regional organisation and so the Forum was established. The main purpose of the forum, is to channel information between it's members, and the regional decision makers.
These four bodies are:
There is just one seat for environmental organisations in the Regional Chamber. The West Midlands Regional Sustainability Forum was originally asked to establish a procedure to fill that seat. This has resulted in Gerald Kells from Walsall, representing the Forum in the Chamber. This is not enough, and we will work to ensure there is increasing awareness within the regionalisation process, to take the issue of the environment and sustainability much more seriously. There is no known environmentalist on the Regional Development Agency, so we have written to the RDA asking for a meeting, to ensure that these issues are taken on board by the Agency within their Economic Strategy, and that there is a strong environmental lobby within the region.
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